[D'sP] Building Placement - Chapter 387

Ace stood on top of a wooden tower that had been built on the wall between the inner and outer circle. There wasn’t too much special about it besides one particular record. It was the tallest building in the entire town and thus gave him a good view.

There often wasn’t enough time to just admire the view, so it had been a while since Ace had seen how his town was growing. At least, from this angle. Not that he was up in the tower for fun this time. There were two buildings that needed to be placed.

The first was simple enough and yet oh so valuable for the moment. This was one of the rewards that every system settlement  in a community that had completed the quest would get. A pigeon coop of sorts that the system would staff and maintain. Even the birds would be provided.

Now, they weren’t stocking it with messenger pigeons; the birds weren’t even properly pigeons, but had likely filled the role on some other world. However, if you were to go to another settlement with one of these and bring some of their birds back to your town? While the system wouldn’t assure their flight would be safe, they would try to return home after being released. That meant a method of passing messages around the various settlements at a speed quicker than on foot.

And this wasn’t going to be some small time operation. The blueprint shown by the system had it taking up the space of two houses and had a tower that rose three stories to the one side. All for free, though with a couple caveats.

While the system would assure the bird would remember how to get home, the freely provided food for the birds wasn’t anything special. If you wanted a message delivered to anywhere far enough away, you’d want to provide better feed. They can make it, but if the trip is going to go overnight, there’s a chance of losing the bird while it settles down for the night.

The other caveat was that the birds didn’t all just show up at once. It took time for each new bird to spawn and they couldn’t be bred or anything. So, if you lose a bunch of birds, you would be waiting a long time for them to restock. Besides that, the provided birds were quite normal. If instead you provided your own birds, you could more easily replace losses and have a chance of gaining variants or monster versions while you’re at it.

It is that second point that pushed Ace’s hand to figure out where to put this building right now. The trip to Bennett town was quite short, but if anything, that just meant a bird message would be delivered even quicker in an emergency. Outside of Bennett town, though, most other places were actually a good bit further away. It seems the system had packed the center of their community and the edge of it with a lot of settlements, but in-between that, there was a lot of space.

Though, admittedly, the river was a bit of a cheat. Especially with magic as wind and water made even going upriver so much quicker than walking. Of course, that depended on what you call the edge of town.

Ace remembers reading something about how towns were spaced in the past. It wasn’t some magical thing where every town was exactly eight hours apart. Rather, you tend to have a big town and then a bunch of small satellite villages around it growing food or based on certain resources like a mill. Those satellite villages could be less than a kilometer away. Then there would be areas with long distances in-between if there wasn’t suitable land to settle on. That led to inns popping up to provide a safe place to rest in the middle of a trip.

And well, Ace could see the beginnings of exactly that kind of growth. Small groups of people had split off and begun to build gatherings of houses off in the distance. Except the modern concept of towns and such would probably classify them as being the suburbs or some such, instead of towns of their own. On top of that, they certainly weren’t system recognized settlements.

Ace sighs and puts those thoughts to the side. He needed to decide on where the coup should be placed. Worse, at this point, he doesn’t even know if it will be a nuisance or not. Would the coup smell? Were these pigeonoids noisy at inconvenient times?

The dairy farm would be a good place to put the coup, if only it wasn’t where it was. There was the small farm in the inner circle with a select group of dairy cattle. Which would be perfect if not for the fact that it was in the inner circle. While Ace was going to reserve some birds for emergency messages, he meant for the building to be open to the public.

As for the big field with the normal cows? That one was placed outside of the town. In fact, one of the satellite settlements had sprouted up there. However, while it wasn’t too far away, the direction it was in meant it was too far from the dock.

Ace shakes his head, he had tried to avoid it. There was one obvious solution, but he had wanted to consider other places first. The coup would fit in across the road from the execution stage the one Guild official had “gifted” the town. Ace had really wanted to avoid bringing more attention to the thing, but the Guild official placed it right where stuff like this would go.

Sure, there were other places Ace could put the birds. However, this was the most convenient, most efficient, and most importantly the area with the least houses, just in case the coup was a nuisance in some manner. Though with that decided, Ace still had another building to place.

The coup was the reward for their community completing the quest, and so everyone was getting one. This other building was the reward for doing the most to make their community succeed at the quest. Which makes sense to go to them when right from the start, Ace hadn’t planned on depending on others at all.

Wolf’s Rest had sent in enough parties and people to complete it all on their own. And for that, they get a wizards tower. Ace isn’t really sure how to feel about that, if he’s to be honest. Sure, part of the reward was a handful of instructional books for magic, so it would be nice to have a proper place for training the stuff.

Even better, unlike the Adventurers Guild, while there is technically an organization for wizard towers, it’s more of a loose gathering without any actual rules beyond having a proper tower. A requirement being short-cutted by the quest reward. The Wizard Coalition would certainly be a boon for Ruby and her fire magic.

They fit the classic image of wizards where they’re focused on learning the secrets of magic and constantly running experiments and such. Though from the little intro blurb that Ace received, they also tended to be funded by nobles. For them, it was all about knowledge being power and nobles are the ones most capable of buying said knowledge.

Ace honestly would have preferred a building from their competitors, the Magic User Union. Not only did that group also include those who focused on spontaneous casting instead of memorizing spells. It had deeper ties with groups who focus on mixing magic with science.

The Wizard’s Coalition, on the other hand, had a near monopoly on pure enchanting. Which was likely why this was the option they received. After all, one of the rewards was a book on the basics of enchanting.

Ace was relieved that at least the tower wouldn’t actually come with any people manning it and did not represent being automatically a part of the wizard faction. Still, it represented politics that extended beyond the planet, something Ace was wary of.

The Guild at least seemed truly neutral as long as you didn’t mess with them. On the other hand, the Coalition and the Union were very much against one another. The wizards look down on the others for their slapdash magic and the “tainting” of Mana by willingly mixing it with other powers and technology. All the while the magic users mostly ignore them except to counter them in any place they’re gaining too much power. Places such as a newly integrated world.

Now, neither could send representatives or anything. Which Ace honestly found weird, seeing as the Adventurers Guild could. However, not being able to send people didn’t mean they were completely cut off.

By placing the tower, the coalition could send a care package of sorts. Now, the system wouldn’t let them send anything too impressive. However, in accepting their gift, Ace needed to figure out a way to let the union send their own or problems would start.

The question was, what kind of structure or activity would allow the union to also say their piece and deliver their bribes? A shame that the answer wasn’t a school for magic or something else like that. After all, Ace could just get a building thrown up and designate it as such through the system.

No, it required an awakener building. Which, given the name, Ace was down for. Except it wasn’t an option in the town’s build menu and like the wizard tower, clearly wasn’t just going to be a simple building with a fancy title. Ace could only shake his head as he thought back on his discovery of what makes a proper wizard’s tower.

You needed a tower spirit. That meant a wizard tower would be just as alive as a dungeon, if much more limited. Though on the upside, it is a lot easier to create a home for a tower spirit, even if it might take some time for a spirit to inhabit the tower afterwards.

From the list of features, Ace had sussed out that the tower spirit would basically be a mix of a supercomputer and the central control behind basically the ultimate in smart homes. While the spirit can’t do things like create things out of energy or anything, it can make simple unseen servants and control every Mana powered device within its body. Oh, and the leading cause of death among the Wizard’s Coalition is not and has never been betrayal by their tower over working conditions.

Ace had already made sure to get the point across to others that the tower would be a resident and not just a building. As while the little info sheet made sure to state, there were a ton of magical geases and bindings applied to any properly formed tower spirit. Well, Ace didn’t trust that. After all, if the tower spirit is meant to control all Mana-based things within the tower, aren’t those bindings Mana-based and in the tower?

As far as Ace is concerned, a proper wizard’s tower is just a ticking time bomb. Waiting for either the bindings to wear down or for the tower to grow stronger than the people living there. He has plans for what to do, but that could wait, as the free tower would be available for the next nine days.

Though he would place it. If only because there will be rooms in the tower meant for performing more destructive experiments. Everyone has done their best so far, but weak tests and small experiments will only get you so far. There comes a time when you just need to see how big you can make your fireball. If only to get a feel for what you’re capable of.

Oh, and the wizard’s tower? It was big. The base of the thing takes up the footprint of nine decent sized houses and would be taller than the tower Ace was currently standing on.

Pass Rates And Quest Rewards - Chapter 386

Material Placement - Chapter 388